It's difficult to say just where Stoneykirk started. Most likely, it started in Chris Blackburn's head, probably immediately after the recording of "Moving" in June of 1993, his first song, written the night before.
As a band, it probably goes back even farther. Think 1992. Chris has a longtime friend, Matt Chatham, who wants to start a band. Matt knows several guys at his high school, Woodward Academy, who want to start a band, too. They all meet at Larry Greenstein's house on April 5th, and jam to several covers, including "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Alive", and REM's "Get Up" (Chris sings), and a couple of AC/DC songs (Larry sings). During the next month, they jam a lot, including a performance at Woodward. Larry calls them Eaten Alive By Darkness, which sticks.
Eaten Alive By Darkness lineup:
In June, Dais returns home to Japan. The band dissolves.
Move to January 1993. Matt wants to play a song for a talent show at Woodward. He, along with Loren and Chris, perform "Black" by Pearl Jam, with a bizarre jam at the end. A minor disaster occurs.
Lineup:
Spring 1993. Loren, Matt, and two of their classmates at Woodward decide to form a band. Matt suggests getting Chris to sing. However, the two other classmates say that they'd rather keep the band within the school. They call themselves Obvious Doubt and play two shows, including one at the now defunct Decibels club.
Obvious Doubt lineup:
June 1993. A friend of Loren's, Reuben Bettsak, has written a couple of songs. He wants to record. He gets Loren and Matt to help out. Larry (from EABD) tags along, and sings Reuben's songs. They record for one day, leaving one song (written by Matt) without vocals, as well as three blank minutes at the end of the reel. Matt, feeling that Larry's voice doesn't quite fit the song, asks Chris to do the vocals the next day. After finishing the song, Chris asks if he can record an acoustic version of his first song on the three minutes at the end of the tape. They agree, and "Moving" makes its first appearance. Reuben coins the band Sound Uprizing. They never play live, though.
Sound Uprizing lineup:
The tape is a bust. However, many say that they like "Moving" a lot. Chris gets excited about the positive response to his first song. Over the course of his freshman year at Duke, he writes several new songs. Upon returning to Atlanta for the summer of 1994, he asks Loren and Matt to be in a band. He calls it Stony Kirk, a bastardization of a street name (Stoneykirk Close) near Loren's house, where they practice. Matt leaves for summer school at Ole Miss, however, so Loren and Chris jam until he returns for a weekend in late June. They perform one show at PJ's Nest in Atlanta, playing five originals and three covers. Another minor disaster. (It could have been considered a major disaster, except there were only eight people in the audience.) Matt returns to school, and the band dissolves.
Stony Kirk lineup:
October 1994. Chris really wants to play in a band at school. Through a mutual friend, he meets Chris Maier, who tells him that he needs a bass player for his new band. Chris, in possession of a spare bass of Matt's (Matt wants Chris to learn to play bass so he can play guitar), agrees. They meet in Burlington, NC, and practice from October until April of 1995. They have a full set list of material, one of which is "Moving", but never have the opportunity to play live. They record three songs for a demo, and unofficially call themselves False Front. The band breaks up at the end of April.
False Front lineup:
During the first weekend of May, Chris collects his songs (many of which he wrote during the previous summer following the breakup of Stony Kirk) and finishes five new ones. He goes to the practice space and records a fourteen song demo on Wayne's four track, playing all of the instruments for the demo. Upon returning to Atlanta two weeks later, he makes copies of the tape to give to Loren and Matt. Matt, however, decides to return to Ole Miss for more summer school. Loren recommends Reuben to play bass in his place. After a couple of practices, everyone is happy, so a new band emerges. The band hates the bastardized name and decides to use the original spelling, becoming Stoneykirk. They learn eight of the songs, and record them at the end of June. Stoneykirk plays a couple of parties, as well as an acoustic show at Kalo's Coffeehouse, and a fourty minute live show at the Wreck Room, near the campus of Georgia Tech. Finally, they have a stable band that perfoms well live.
Stoneykirk lineup:
Now, we're up to the present. With everyone at different schools, we're not really playing right now. Loren is currently playing studying at the University of Michigan. Reuben is playing guitar in a punk band, Lipmonger, at the University of Hartford, and is helping to start an indie punk record label, Negative Progression. Chris is actively writing new songs, and recorded a few scratch demos this summer. A full length album may be recorded during the spring.
More to come...